At Roadmap 12, the annual conference on electric, smart and shared transportation, Forth hosted two utility-focused workshops: Introduction to Transportation Electrification for Electric Utilities and Advanced Transportation Electrification Strategies for Utilities. Utilities have a crucial role to play in transportation electrification but many are just getting started. Forth recognized the opportunity to provide additional, utility-focused resources and education for utility staff and utility associations and saw Roadmap as the perfect anchor for hosting these workshops.

The introductory workshop featured an overview of the electric vehicle market, provided by Atlas Public Policy, and included a panel on charging with speakers from Greenlots, Electrify America, Blink, and SemaConnect. Forth staff provided basic electric vehicle education.  Attendees also visited the Go Forth Electric Showcase to see a first-hand example of brand-neutral consumer engagement.  Finally, we covered the basics of designing EV programs at utilities, while including a focus on equity with guest speaker, Hana Creger, from The Greenlining Institute. A few key takeaways from this workshop: EVs are coming and utilities are well-positioned to support EV adoption; utilities should prepare to talk to their customers about EVs by educating themselves on the market, charging options, and incentives; and utilities should consider strategies for encouraging and tracking adoption in their service territories to prepare for future load growth.

The advanced workshop offered attendees a deeper dive into utility strategies for smart and managed charging. Presentations included a discussion of ratepayer benefits from Energy and Environment Economics, Inc. (E3) and a national overview of state EV policies from the Alliance for Transportation Electrification. In most cases, all ratepayers stand to benefit from transportation electrification and, in fact, EVs are already driving rates down in some parts of the country. 

Speakers from NRDC, FleetCarma, eMotorWerks, and Greenlots covered current smart charging technology and strategies for implementing managed charging. Attendees also received an in-depth look at the latest learnings from advanced utility EV programs across the country from the Smart Electric Power Alliance. The group also visited several utility-funded charging infrastructure projects around Portland.

An overall theme of this workshop was that utilities can address the expected load growth of EVs through effective managed charging strategies such as time-of-use rates and rewarding off-peak charging behavior, even in scenarios where controlled charging is not possible. Utility-funded charging infrastructure deployment should be managed-charging capable to future-proof utilities for V2G developments, but they should also be user-friendly to simplify the transition for customers.

Forth is quite pleased with the turnout and the enthusiasm attendees brought to these workshops. In total, 90 people attended the workshops from a variety of utilities and organizations from across the U.S. Our hope is to refine the materials presented this year and seek opportunities to replicate these trainings across the country.